Henry roberts



HENRY ROBERTS, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OE ONE-HABIT TO GEORGE T. OLIVER, OF SAME PLACE.

ART OF PROTECTING THE INTERIOR WALLS OF FURNACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 398,450, dated February 26, 1889.

Application filed October 15, 1887. Serial No 252,422. No model.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, HENRY ROBERTS, of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invent-ed a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Protecting the Interior \Valls of Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In the use of natural gas in puddlin g, heatro ing, and other similar furnaces the walls of the furnace are constantly subjected to a cutting flame, owing to an excess of air, which is necessary to the complete combustion of the gas, which rapidly burns away the walls and necessitates frequent repairs to the furnace. This injury to the walls of the furnace is greatest at the bridge-wall or other parts of the furnace against which the flame impinges, and it constitutes one of the objectionable features to the use of natural gas or manufactured gas, which, however, has many advantages over coal or the fuel formerly employed.

The object of my invention is to obviate 5 this evil and to prevent the cutting action of the flame on the walls of furnaces, whereby they may endure or last the time usual where the old form of fuel is used; and it consists in introducing into the furnace with the gas 0 and air of combustion a supply of steam, which, while it permits combustion of the gas without lessening the heat produced, forms a cushion about the walls which protects them from the cutting action of the flame. By practical experience I have found thatin this way the walls may be fully protected and the evil above described obviated Although my invention is especially ad vantageous in connection with furnaces in which 0 natural gas is employed, it may also be ap plied to other furnaces using coal or mannfactured gas as fuel for. the same purpose of protecting the walls of the furnace from the cutting action of the flames.

To illustrate my invention, I show in the accompanying drawing a heating furnace provided with regenerators, to which furnace my invention is applicable. ,I do not, however, limit the scope of my invention to its other forms and kinds of furnaces for a like purpose.

The drawing represents a front elevation, partly in section, of a heating-furnace having a bed, a, into which air and gas ports I) c open from channels leading from the regenerators, which regenerators are provided with the usual checker-work. The products of combustion pass from the bed of the furnace to the opposite regenerator, and thence to the smoke or stack flue in the usual manner. From time to time the currents are reversed, so that the air may be caused to pass through the heated checker-work. This reversal is effected by reversing-valves of the ordinary and usual construction, which, being well known to those skilled in the art, need not here be further described. At each end of the furnace is a main gas-pipe, (1, controlled by a valve, 6, and terminating in a distribu tin g-pipe, f, which has any number of branch pipes, 71, desired, said branch pipes extending through the walls and terminating at the rear side of the ports be. At each end of the furnace there is a main steam-supply pipe, 2', controlled by a valve, 2', and terminating in a distributing-pipe, 7:, which has any number of branch pipes, 772, (lcsired,\vl1iel1 extend beside the branch pipes 72. an d terminate a little below the latter. As thus constructed, the gas and steannwh en discharged from. the pipes 7L and m, mix with the hot air from the regenerators, and all together pass to the bed a ofthe furnace, the gas uniting and burning with the air, while the steam, mingling with the products of comb ustion, forms a cushion about the walls of the furnace, and thereby protects them from the cutting action of the flame.

Although I have shown and described a certain construction and arrangement of gas and steam pipes, I do not desire to limit my self to the same, as the arrangement may be varied to suit the construction or kind of furnace, the same purpose or object being retained, which is to introduce live steam into the furnace, so as to form a cushion about the Walls Where the flames are apt to impinge.

I am aware that steam has been used for the purpose of oxidizing iron and steel in furnaces, and that it has, when superheated, been introduced in furnaces for the purpose of producing hydrogen, and I do not desire to claim the use of steam for either of these purposes; nor do I desire to claim introducing steam into heating-furnaces for the purpose of preventing oxidation of iron or steel by forming a non-oxidizing bath about the metal, as this latter invention. has been claimed by me in a separate application.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The improvement in the art of protecting furnaces against the cutting action of flame, especially of fluid fuel, consisting in surrounding or enveloping the flame with steam, which acts as a cushion between the flame and the walls of the furnace, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this llth day of Oct0ber,A. D. 1887.

HENRY ROBERTS. lVitnesses:

W. B. CORWIN,

J AMES K. BAKEWELL. 

